Australia one step forward - but lets get Generation right first

It was interesting to see the Australian Government's Green Paper on a Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. It has one! A distinct departure from Australia’s pervious government.

The framework being proposed looks like it has some chance of achieving the stated outcomes; although just by the media speculation and hype it has generated continued support for Prime Minister Rudd (good political move to expedite this). I can see concerns at eroding the value of the investments in Coal fired power (not a bad thing) but if it knocks out investments in clean coal technology then of course there needs to be some “special treatment” of these dirty generation assets. Again, not such a bad decision.

If you’ve watched my dialog for sometime you’ll understand that in country like Australia the reducing available water for agriculture has many farmers destitute; just the thing to avoid as the rising population and climate change reduces agricultural yields across the planet.

So, all in all, promise for the political will in Australia to move forward and take public opinion with them. Transformation of Electrical Generation may happen.

In emerging countries that I work in, I am starting to see a similar turn of events. Two weeks ago in Malaysia; after much dialog with senior management of Utilities; I thought the question of Green House Gas would forever be unanswered. But I recently heard that the Malaysian government has asked for strategies for Carbon Trading in light of its anticipating in being drawn into a scheme post 2012 (post Kyoto).

Last week in India I was surprised to see very determined efforts to increase renewable mix (if only as a result of the increasing cost of fuel).

The real media fallacy of course is that electric cars are the answer to our carbon problem. They are only the answer if we can convert the source of Generation & Distribution systems for Electricity to renewalable (or perhaps broader – non fossil fuel) sources. If you produce electricity by Coal, Gas or Oil; and transmit it; THEN distribute it to houses; THEN convert into a storage form (ie chemical) THEN convert to horse power -hp (via electric motors) in a car; more CO2 is generated per hp than directly in a petrol driven engine. So, electric cars are worse unless we attack the fixed electrical production elements of our energy value chain. First we need to get a high % of renewables in place (even Nuclear would help here) and then covert the land transport systems. Carbon trading is a key part of the strategy and yes it will mean higher pump prices in most economies, but “no pain, no gain” comes into play.